Their regionals have a sort of preregistration sign up procedure at first, this seems like a way to bypass that normal procedure to be able to participate without having to worry about getting lucky like that. Or this is just their qualifications for nationals.

Is it just me, or is the player whose perspective theta we're seeing isn't exactly playing good, for example, he used earthquake when both of the opponents pokémon naturally are immune to it (t1 Rotom-W and Hydreigon) i'm not sure if they're playing on some kind of astronomicly high prediction level, but that is slightly weird or utterly crazy (or did the timer chose his moves as he had not chosen his attacks in time), Regardless, the winner played well and he probably deserved it.

My thoughts on the battle(Move your mouse to reveal the content)My thoughts on the battle (open)My thoughts on the battle (close)

After watching the video I am a bit disappointed, the guy who got 2nd seemed to use a fairly bad team to begin with. Neither one played that well, but I guess that's acceptable because they already got the trip. But they still made some massive mistakes that if someone I knew well did that I would call them out.

Analysis of the battle:
• First turn choice scarf Salamence targets Hydreigon assuming no Haban or Focus Sash, in case of Metagross in the back also uses Earthquake with Focus Sash Garchomp. Having Haban Berry he knows he survives a dragon attack and that it is more likely that the other guy will not double target he goes for Draco Meteor on Garchomp, which is bulkier than Salamence, and Choice Specs Thunderbolt on Salamence which will get a 2HKO normally.

• Thinking that he can KO Hydreigon with Rock Slide now he goes for that, Draco Meteor Rotom-W because you are trying to have Hydreigon KOd that turn anyways and paralyzed Choice Scarf Salamence with such low HP isn't going to be doing much anyways. Protect with Hydreigon because Garchomp will obviously target and -2 Choice Scarf Salamence is very weak and will target Rotom-W, Rotom-W is Choice Specs and being stuck in Thunderbolt will not help because of Garchomp, so switch out into something: Conkeldurr.

FIRST MISTAKE THAT MAKES NEARLY NO SENSE COMES IN TURN THREE​

• Keep Salamence into get sacked for a free switch in, it is not going to do anything again, and potential for Hydreigon to switch out now again after using Protect is high coupled with the off chance that Conkeldurr carries Wide Guard so uses Dragon Claw to KO Hydreigon and hope that Conkeldurr is min-speed so Choice Scarf Salamence can still outspeed. Uses Drain Punch on Salamence maybe predicting a switch and to sack Hydreigon for your own free switch? This was the first mistake, best move would have been to Mach Punch Garchomp and try KOing Salamence with a move other than Draco Meteor, but tries to maybe double target Salamence with Drain Punch + unknown move because Garchomp KOd Hydreigon.

There were other mistakes, but those are misplays caused by prediction, you can't really judge them as much on mispredicting if it make sense. Although the person who got 2nd did moves that weren't that good, it makes sense when you realize what he is basing his moves off of. Right now I'm just trying to explain what I think they were predicting and basing their predictions on.

At the match with the misplays, I laughed at the start. It seemed like it was genuinely fun for them to hop around. They took like, 20 seconds to shake each others hands. Overall, it was a decent battle. Maybe they were trying to predict switches, but they made some questionable plays.

I really hate to complain about other people's playstyles, but I have to question how those two made it into Masters finals. There were barely any good predictions, two double weaknesses to Ice on one team(I suppose with good counters to it though), then odd items. A bit surprised their teams didn't look too different from our own, but meh.